Newly elected President Ignacio Chan of the Lutheran Church in Guatemala.

GUATEMALA – On January 26, 2019, the Lutheran Church in Guatemala (Iglesia Luterana en Guatemala – ILG) elected Rev. Ignacio Chan as its new president during the church’s 2019 Assembly in Cristo Rey.

President Chan succeeds Rev. Dr. Abdiel Orozco Aguirre, who was first elected as president of the ILG in 2015 and was reelected in 2017. Rev. Chan previously served as president several terms before Dr. Orozco’s tenure.

The newly elected officers of the Lutheran Church in Guatemala.

Also elected during the 2019 Assembly were Rev. Byron Paz as Vice President, Luís Mazariegos as Secretary, and Efraín García as Treasurer. The new officers were installed on January 26 by Rev. David Rodriguez, a former President of the Guatemalan church. President Chan officially took office on January 30.

“I put myself at your service as a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord, trusting in your prayers,” said President Chan in an email following his election. “With the help of God, we will work in harmony.”

The International Lutheran Council (ILC), of which the ILG is a member church, sent greetings to President Chan following his election. “Congratulations and God’s blessings on the election in your church,” said ILC Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt (Bishop of Germany’s Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church). “St. Augustine once wrote on the duties of a bishop as follows: He may ‘reprehend the troublemakers, console the faint-hearted, take care of the weak, refute the adversaries, beware of entrapment, arouse the languid, restrain those looking for quarrels, put the vain in their proper place, appease those who argue with one another, teach the uneducated, help the poor, set free those oppressed, encourage the good, bear with the wicked, and—oh—love them all.’ May God give you this love!”

The Lutheran Church in Guatemala has approximately 4,000 members in congregations throughout Guatemala.

———————